The Senate Standing Committee on Ports and Shipping was given detailed briefing on the functions and organizational structure of Port Qasim Authority besides the status and progress of deep sea berth in Karachi Port Trust.
According to press release, the committee met Monday and was presided over by its Chairman Senator Muhammad Ali Khan Saif. KPT was informed that operational hurdles have been removed and the Deep Water Container Port would be operational by the end of this year. The committee was given a detailed briefing on the appointments and promotions made by PQA during last five years. The committee was surprised that no appointment on any vacancy has been made from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Officials stated that proper rules have been formulated for recruitment now.
PQA has earned a net profit of Rs 4321.707 million. It has handled 47 LNG vessels. The committee was also briefed about the second LNG project. Regarding allotment of plots during last three years, the PQA informed that a 40 acres plot has been allotted to Ms. Pak Suzuki Motors for automobile industry, a 13.18 acres plot to Ms Engro LNG terminal for construction of LNG terminal and a 200 acres land allotted to Ms Port Qasim Electric Power for construction of power plant. The meeting was attended by Senators Naseema Ehsan, Agha Shahbaz Durrani and Taj Haider. Secretary of the ministry and senior officers of PQA and KPT were also present at the meeting.
Source: The News

The $255 million Pakistan International Bulk Terminal (PIBT) is all set to become operational by the end of this year at Port Qasim, according to PIBT Chief Executive Officer Sharique A. Siddiqui. PIBT is under construction at the country’s second largest seaport with Marine Group of Companies, International Finance Corporation-Member of World Bank group, OPEC Fund for International Development and a local banking syndicate holding, respectively, 51, 20 and 29 percent of its shares.
The operators have targeted January 2017 as a deadline for commercial operationality of the country’s first multipurpose dirty bulk cargo handling facility. www.hellenicshipp...

Pakistan GasPort Ltd., which won a government contract to build the country’s second liquefied natural gas terminal, plans to list the project in two years and double capacity, taking advantage of a global glut, according to Chief Executive Officer Iqbal Ahmed.
The terminal which costs $135 million will initially handle 600 million cubic feet a day at Karachi’s Port Qasim, said Ahmed. GasPort plans to add another terminal to double capacity by 2018 and will be followed by the construction of a 500 megawatt power plant. GasPort was awarded the contract by the state-owned Pakistan LNG Terminals Ltd. after offering the lowest bid, Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, said by phone on Wednesday. www.hellenicshipp...

The government has issued Letter of Intent (LoI) to award the contract for setting up second Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal at Port Qasim in Karachi. As per details, the Board of Directors of Pakistan LNG Terminals Limited (PLTL) in its meeting held on May 6 approved a financial bid submitted by Pakistan GasPort Limited (Consortium) which includes Fauji Oil Terminal and Distribution Company Limited (FOTCO) which offered a levelized (service) charge of $0.4177 per MMbtu for handling of 600 Million Cubic Feet per Day (MMCFD) of LNG at the terminal.

Behind the fanfare surrounding Pakistan’s entry in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market, anxiety has started to creep in among officials whose stakes in the latest energy venture run high.
Regular and scheduled import of LNG should have started by now. Not just because the country desperately needs to address energy woes, but due to its commitments with a private terminal operator.
Every day, the government is paying $272,000 to Engro Elengy Terminal, which has invested millions of dollars to build a jetty and hire a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) to handle LNG, which is basically a super-chilled liquid form of natural gas.
“That’s a fixed charge we have to pay the terminal operator in any case. It’s important that government realises that and starts importing at the earliest,” said an official connected with the project.
After much delay, the FSRU docked at Port Qasim on March 26. It also brought in its tanks around 3,000 million cubic feet of gas. Initially, it was expected that the cargo will last for 15 days considering a throughput of 200mmcfd.
But now officials say that average of 100mmcfd is going into the system, adding to perception that the government is trying its best to stretch use of the first cargo for as long as possible.
The terminal is designed to handle 600mmcfd. Contractually, the government can use up to 400mmcfd of capacity. tribune.com.pk/st...

A Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) ship which stores and converts LNG to gas (FSRU) reached Port Qasim on Thursday with an initial cargo load of 148517 cubic metre of LNG.
This will now permanently dock at the Engro Elengy Terminal at Port Qasim and together will provide Pakistan’s first state of the art LNG terminal.
The terminal has been built at a cost of USD 135 million in a world record time of 335 days of signing with actual construction of 179 days and the FSRU vessel is worth an additional USD 300 million. Engro won the contract to handle LNG at the most competitive rate in the region. In addition, the vessel has the capacity for regasification of up to 600 mmcfd which will have a major impact on solving the energy crisis in the country.

A Floating Storage and Re-gasification Unit (FSRU), leased to convert liquid natural gas (LNG) into natural gas, is ready to leave for Pakistan on March 7 from Dubai. “We have given March 7, the date to leave Dubai for Pakistan and expect a green signal from the authorities concerned to bring FSRU vessel to Pakistan”, Engro Elengy’s Chief Executive Officer, Shiekh Imranul Haque told the media on Saturday.
Engro Elengy, the company that won the contract to handle liquefied natural gas (LNG), has acquired this vessel on lease. It has built an LNG terminal, at Port Qasim for the purpose which is ready to receive shipments from March 10 onwards. “We are ready”, he said, adding “the vessel would start operation the moment it gets green signal from the authorities concerned of the government”.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to finance the construction of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Terminal at Port Qasim. An agreement to this affect will be signed with the government of Pakistan and Elengy Terminal Pakistan Limited (ETPL) soon.
Reliable sources said the ADB has agreed to favourably consider the request of ETPL for the construction of the Terminal.
The government of Pakistan will the guarantor for the loan. If the agreement is signed the LNG terminal would be completed by June 2015.
The project is primarily based on developing the required infrastructure so that LNG could be brought into the Natural Gas (NG) market, which witnessed phenomenal growth in the energy sector in Pakistan. In the first stage, the focus is on the fastest method to facilitate LNG flow into the NG pipeline network in Pakistan.
Source: Daily Times

The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) issued a licence to Elengy Terminal Pakistan Limited (ETPL) – a subsidiary of Engro Corporation – to construct a terminal at Port Qasim (PQ) for landing and re-gasification of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to be imported early next year.
The issuance of licence for construction and operation of the LNG terminal is one of the most critical stages towards import of about 500mmcfd (million cubic feet per day) LNG originally targeted for November 2014 by the PML-N government. The target has now been revised to April 2015.

The Sindh Food Department and Fauji Akber Portia Marine Terminals will establish strategic storage facilities for wheat and grain with a combined capacity of 150,000 tons at the Port Qasim South Western Industrial Zone, Express Tribune reports.